The parallels of local food and local businesses

[mivona]

I've posted before about my keen interest in growing my own food or buying local food, and how my kids are quite keen on the idea with our allotments, chickens and bees.

I have just completed several months work in sorting out my rental house, after having some truly awful tenants who were evicted owing 6 months rent and left a lot of damage. I had to replace the sofas (cat scratched), fridge-freezer (never defrosted, so all the doors broken off the freezer and carefully stacked in a cupboard), the bathroom suite (they had bleached out the colour in the bath somehow, leaving a horrendous tide mark). They also propped a dart board up against a headboard and missed quite a lot, leaving the headboard and the wall peppered with holes. They never aired the house, leaving the heating on all the time (and running up an unpaid gas bill and covering over the bathroom vent, so I had mould growing under all the windows. The garden was overgrown too. They abandoned their cat there, poor thing.

Anyway... while I had service contracts with British Gas for the house, I have come to realise that the service they offer is utter crap. I had an electrical fault which, after taking my service contract payments for 8 years, they decided that the electrical system was "incorrectly installed". I had them out to fix the toilet, only for them to leave with it still faulty. I had to have them out to fix a ballcock in the water tank that had leaked, and had slowly leaked for some time damaging the ceiling in the airing cupboard because they had last repaired it some 15 years ago with the wrong part.

I began looking for local tradespeople to help me with the work I needed done. I found a brilliant tiler and handyperson, who did the tiling in the bathroom and helped me refresh the kitchen with new doors. I have found a great electrician who worked so hard to fix an electrical fault, upgrade part of my system and do a safety inspection, working from 9-6.30pm, for a fair price.

I've decided I am going to put together a raft of local business people that I can rely upon for anything that goes wrong with the houses, and put the money back into my local community rather than into the pockets of shareholders of British Gas. I don't buy a lot of brand new stuff, and am happy to search for furniture or appliances, etc that I need for the house from local Ebayers.

I've extended my concern about the economic well-being of small farmers to the economic well-being of small businesspeople/tradespeople. Plus, I hope to get much better service. The premiums I was giving to British Gas will go into a "repairs" account.

[tekobari]

You'll really like it, miv. I've done that for a while now. No "big box" stores. Local hardware, not chains. Family-owned or my co-op grocers, not Walmart or Shop and Save (the quality is far superior, to boot). Mr. Wong, not chain repair people. An excellent, private vet, not Pet Smart. All of it, as much as possible.

[mivona]

I already do a fair amount of local shopping, but I do still hit the supermarket - but the little local branch rather than the megastore. I know the cashiers there, and I love having a chat with them about books, bees, commiserating with them when ill, life, etc. So, I still buy groceries there, but that is mixed with milk delivered by my milkman and stuff from the farmer's market - vegetables that I have either run out of or didn't grow or didn't thrive, fish, cheese and meat. I bake bread sometimes, but prefer to do it in the cold months.

There are various fruit and vegetable markets available that are pretty good for inexpensive stuff, but the quality can be variable. I like to know where things have been grown and come from to minimise food miles.

Tonight for dinner we had penne al vodka - using tomatoes, onions, aubergine and chilis from the allotment. We also had homegrown runner and wax beans.

This is the first time I have really thought about the rest of my purchasing a lot, but after my experience with British Gas, I was in need of an electrician, urgently, to repair a fault before the tenants moved in. I picked a suitably accredited very local firm, and they were FANTASTIC. They arrived at the time they agreed, and worked steadily through the day, upgrading the system and fixing the original fault. I was delighted with their diligence and care.

The electrician is also going to give me a report that I hope to use in a small claims case against British Gas. They are happy enough to take the premiums for my contract, until I actually need it.

I am meeting a plumber/handyperson soon to see if that would work as a cover for plumbing and small repairs. Fingers crossed.

[Hepburn]

I dont do the mega store thing either. I keep it local. Small stores, farmers markets and craigslist for handyman stuff dennis doesnt want to do.

[Meya]

We're fortunate to have a small chain of locally owned grocery stores here. This time of year, they carry a wide range of produce that has been grown in the nearby towns. I do pick up a few things at Giant Eagle, but do the bulk of my shopping at the other store.

For home repairs, we have always used local businesses. The window & door company does great work, uses their own employees, no sub-contractors, and the owner himself always follows up on the jobs, even calling at the 12 month point to make sure everything is still good.

When buying items for the home, we also shop the smaller locally owned stores. I can't stand the "mega" stores either. People tend to believe that it costs more to shop local, but I can tell you it doesn't. The frig we just bought was almost the same bottom line cost everywhere I priced it. We saw the same thing when pricing flooring.

[mivona]

After my experience with my car this year, I will only ever take it back to a dealer for very specialist servicing.

My car is nearly 5 years old, and has been regularly maintained. It doesn't get high mileage and I don't drive like a demon. When I took it is for its annual servicing, the dealer's garage presented me with a list of things that they thought should be done that totaled £2,300! I couldn't believe it! Some of the things they classed as "essential" for me to pass the safety inspection, and others "recommended".

One telling warning sign for me was that, the guy from the dealer was going through the list of things I needed done, and included "the spare tyre is at 0.8". My car doesn't have a spare tyre - the place for the tyre is taken up by the LPG tank...

I rang my local tyre dealer, and asked them about servicing costs. They recommended me to another local garage, and I took the list they gave me to them. They recommended that I get a single item done by the dealer (the timing belt) and that the car be brought to them for getting it through the safety inspection. The servicing and timing belt done by the dealer cost me over £400. The local garage charged me only £160, including the safety inspection. I will be taking it back to them in a few months to get the oil leak seen to - though it is not leaking badly, but at least it spreads the cost.

Items that the dealer said I must have done (£70 for a wing mirror, nearly £100 for cleaning/adjusting windscreen washers) were absolutely fine and were not "essential" for the safety inspection.

I also went and purchased two new tyres from my friendly tyre dealer - I thought they warranted my business after they directed me to the other garage. They were not essential, but the garage said they had an advisory on them for safety - and tyres is not something I mess around with.

From now on, I will look local.

[Meya]

Finding a good local mechanic can be so tough. When we bought this house 19 years ago, someone from the church we attended recommended a guy about 15 minutes away from where we live. The church took their bus & vans there, and so did some of the staff.

He is wonderful. Honest to a fault, doesn't overcharge on labor etc. He's about our age (early 50s) and has owned the shop for almost 30 years. At least 4 times he has given an early "diagnosis/estimate", then found on further look that it wasn't as bad. He could have easily done more work than necessary, but doesn't.

He went out of his way and stayed late a while ago when DD's car needed to be seen before she left for Florida. Needless to say, we recommend him to anyone who asks about mechanics. It's great to have a good relationship with repair folks. He'll leave the bill in the cars now and trusts us to send payment. It's great.

[mivona]

I have that kind of relationship with my optician. I can send my daughter there to get her eyes tested and choose glasses, and they will order them without a deposit, ring me when they are ready and take payment over the phone. Brilliant!